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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 1547197" data-attributes="member: 3400">Here's one place I think you're going wrong in the impressions you've formed about 3E. You're looking, in part, at hte kind of discussions going on here and are making assumptions that that's all we care about... mechanics, mechanics, mechanics. You're looking at a non-random sample of personal interactions about the game and not adjusting for the biases inherent in this sample. For one thing, this is a text forum and text communication has certain limitations. It's easy to dash off quick questions or comments about game mechanics because they are easier to communicate. More creative endeavors like coming up with a fighter organization generally require a lot more typing and time in cogently organizing the post. That will tend to bias internet boards in favor of the quicker and easier topics.Also, mechanics are generally common across campaigns (barring for house rules) because we're primarily discussing d20 games (mostly D&D). As a result, there are more players for whom the topic will be relevant and a larger pool of likely participants. Role-playing oriented, campaign-specific (or at least informed) topics will by their very nature have narrower appeal because they aren't appropriate to all campaigns.Finally, WotC publications may not have inspired your writing as much as others. I don't necessarily see this as a case of WotC's stuff being poorly written. WotC is mostly putting out rule manuals to relatively concisely and consistently describe the rules. As such, it's putting out something akin to technical manuals and they should be simply written and easy to digest. And for a RPG trying to attract as broad a group of players as possible for use as a core system, it has to be fairly generic. That means that it will be rules/crunch heavy and flavor light. They won't exactly want to alienate too many diverse uses of the game by being too rigid or heavily defined. 3rd party sources, while also looking to sell well, aren't as beholden to being the most flexible game on the block. They can stick tighter to specific themes, settings, and flavor because that is exactly what will distinguish them from other products. For D&D and crunchy WotC publications, what sets them apart from others is the flexibility and robustness of their rules.</blockquote>

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